JACK Watts has declared he wants to remain a Demon.
Speaking post-match after Melbourne’s 35-point loss to St Kilda at the MCG on Saturday, Watts, who is out of contract at the end of the season, said he was having “ongoing negotiations with my manager and the club”, but was adamant where he wanted to be in 2014.
“Yes, I do want to stay, definitely,” he said.
“It’s a great group of blokes that I’ve spent the last five years with and it’s been tough. At the moment, as Craigy’s (Neil Craig) saying, we’re non-competitive at the moment and it’s frustrating. But the things that are going on behind closed doors and the way that we’re training – I want to be there for when it turns around. Hopefully that’s sooner rather than later – that’s for sure.
“[My manager] Paul [Connors] has gone away on a well-earned holiday at the moment, so he’ll be back from overseas in a couple of weeks, but [I’m] pretty keen to get into it after that.”
Craig said it was up to Melbourne to provide an environment that enticed out of contract players, like Watts, to remain.
“That’s part of our responsibility. These guys are highly motivated young men,” the Melbourne coach said.
“You’re responsibility is not to demotivate them. People think it’s all about motivation, but these guys are all highly motivated. The responsibility of the Melbourne footy club is to get its act in order, [so it can] provide a [strong] environment. When a player or employee [joins] they [should] have the absolute belief that they’ll be able to be the best that they can possibly be. That’s part of our responsibility.
“When it comes to Jack Watts re-signing or not re-signing, it becomes just a no-brainer. We need to accept that responsibility.”
Watts said the club was already in the process of making changes to ensure players would remain.
“[New chief executive] Peter Jackson coming in has been really impressive for me. Just to see that and the way that he goes about it,” he said.
“They speak about giving the members hope and it’s the same about giving the players hope. That’s what we’ve got and I can certainly see it turnaround with the way that we train and go about things.”
Reflecting on the week, which saw the departure of Mark Neeld, Watts said it had been “pretty tough on the boys” to see another coach move on.
“We we’re pretty down in the dumps in the first couple of weeks of this year. Something different [like having Neil Craig as coach] gave us a little bit of energy during the week and training was a little bit different – it wasn’t any better or any worse or any harder.
“It was just something different.”
